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“I don’t like the circus that is going on down here right now and I think that they need some leadership,” Gardner said Thursday at City Hall. “I think there is definitely a lack of leadership here.”

The former councillor and one-time Metro Police commissioner registered to run for the city’s top job on Thursday.

“One of the comments I get from a lot of people is the choices so far seem to be (Olivia Chow) or (Mayor Rob Ford) — some more left-wingers will say I’ll vote for Chow, others will say if that’s all I’ve got to choose from, I’ll vote for Ford,” Gardner said. “I think (Ford is) jeopardizing the health and safety of the people in this city.”

Gardner made headlines back in 1992 for shooting a man robbing his bakery.

“Cop exec plugs thug,” read the headline in the Toronto Sun on March 15, 1992.

The self-described small “c” conservative or small “l” liberal said he’s got a track record he’s “proud of” saving taxpayers’ money.

“My track record is that I earned the taxpayers over a billion dollars with my initiatives in waste management, when I was chairman of social services I was able to expand the daycare system and come in $32 million and $9 million, respectively, under budget, also I got paramedic training which a few months after I visited EMS headquarters they told me they’d saved 109 lives,” he said.

“I reorganized the police department — got the first negotiated contract in eight years with them after eight years of arbitration.”

Gardner was blunt when he was asked about Ford, saying he doesn’t think much of him.

“I think he probably meant well and a lot of people put faith in him but I think he’s kind of jeopardized the health of the city in many respects,” he said.